Check out our new blog!

We're in China now...so please come check out our new blog!

We Dug a Hole to China http://dugaholetochina.typepad.com/home/

I will be posting photos and stories of daily living and learning in China!

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We dug a hole to China!

Okay, so we really didn't dig a hole all the way to China but guess what?

We are moving there!!!

Yes, we are moving to China! My husband just accepted a three-year expat assignment with his company which will take us Tianjin, China. I think the move will happen in January. Tianjin is a couple hours away from Beijing. They are also thirteen hours ahead of our time zone in the midwest so the transition will be interesting!

We did do a brief visit right before the school year started. We were on the ground there for FOUR days. That is definitely not enough time!

So....just in case if you have been wondering if we have fallen off the edge of the Earth....rest assured that we have!

I hope to switch this blog to typepad - does anyone have experience moving existing blogs to a different host? I do plan on posting lots of updates and photos for family and friends to join us on our journey.

Stay tuned......
:-)

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Cherries...oh how we love cherries!

It's Cherry Season in Michigan!

 Miles...The Cherry Picking Toddler!

 Grant- The Cherry Munching Baby

(he looks a bit drowsy, doesn't he?)

 Thank you Auntie Margaret for the lovely braids in Ava's hair!

And thank you to Auntie Beth for giving Ava a hair trim.  :-)

yummy sweet cherries

 Sour Cherries....

so ripe the stones were coming out as we were picking them

 Hmmm....sour cherries aren't exactly great for eating!

And now I'm trying to find sweet cherry recipes.  Have any great recipes to share with me?

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Introducing....Mittens!

Come meet our new kitten

Ninja

Peanuts

....

Mittens!

 He's around eight weeks old....and I don't think I've ever had a kitten before. (Cats, yes.  Kittens, no.)  What are we in for????

 I think his full name might end up being something like this: Mittens the Peanut Ninja Kitty

Can you tell we had trouble deciding on his name?

Annika came up with Peanuts and then Mittens.  I think Mittens suits him better.  What do you think?

 He's very sweet and playful.  He adores feathers.  He doesn't mind being carried around by little girls.

 Both of the girls are in love!

Welcome to the family, Mittens!  Thank goodness you know what the litter box is there for!

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A Week of Summer Fun- The Random Edition

I hope you're all having an awesome Summer Break!  We're enjoying ours.  We've decided to slow things down a bit this summer.  I've deliberately kept our summer schedule light.  What a relief after last year which involved too.much.driving!

Musical Note Egg

 While Mark and Ava were preparing the waffle batter for our Sunday morning breakfast Ava kept saying there were musical notes on one of the eggs.  Huh?  Mark and I looked at the egg in question and sure enough!  It did have what appeared to be musical notes.  Good Eye, Ava!  Must have come from a musical chicken!

The Classic Mentos Experiment

A one-liter bottle of Diet Coke...drop in a few Mentos...and this is what happens!

(stand back)

The geyser didn't last long.  (only a couple of seconds)

 The Happiest Rainbow Cookies I've made.  

I used My Favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe.   The cookies were based on the Play Dough cookies we've made but this time we divided the cookie dough into six equal parts and colored each division with gel food coloring.  I layered the colored cookie dough in rainbow order and then sliced to create these cookies.

The girls are building Forts.

 And in since it's Summer I've decided to let this particular Fort stay up.  The girls keep saying they'll sleep overnight in it but so far that hasn't happened.

Rainbow sugar concentration experiment.

 FAILED.  

The girls wanted to do a rainbow theme- so I tried to find a science experiment that used stuff we already had.  I found this experiment.  The idea is to create layers of sugar water that have different amounts of sugar (to create a rainbow density column).  Only ours really didn't work.  

 One morning the girls went to town playing with chalk in the garage.  They labeled lots of things.  Including Mocha's food.

 And they labeled the Wood pile

 They also labeled the car...now where is that photo?  Humph.

And here was the greeting they wrote as you stepped out into the garage from the house:

and I have no idea why that photo is sideways as the original isn't!

We'll see what happens this week!  I think the {wild} black raspberries might be ready for picking.  That means we'll be making black raspberry jelly!  Woo hoo!  Hope you have an awesome week!

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My I-Love-Hawaii Bars of Soap

I wish you could smell these lovely bars of soap!  It's Hawaiian goodness at its best.  As is usually the case, the bars of soap start out ultra fragrant and then mellow to a light, pleasant scent.  I used Pikaki Fragrance Oil from Sweet Cakes.

Instant Love.

 Check out the mold Mark built for me!  This is the first batch of soap made in the new mold.  It produces perfect bars of soap!  None of them are wonky or weirdly cut.  I think we should have made a mold like this years ago!

The bars need at least another week to cure and then they should be ready.  Just in time too as we're nearly out of soap here.  I can't stand the thought of buying soap!

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Happy Father's Day!

So, what did you have for Father's Day dinner?

We had fantastic sushi rolls made by Daddy! 

:-)

He made these awesome inside-out rolls (his first time making the inside-out ones).  The filling? Carefully cut English cucumbers, thinly julienned carrots, avocado and either cooked Copper River sockeye salmon, cooked shrimp or canned crabmeat.   

 Mark- The Talented, Up & Coming Sushi Chef!

 Hey Annika, what's with the My Little Pony?

Was it good?

YOU BET!  It was absolutely fantastic!  Almost like being at a fancy sushi restaurant.

And for dessert I made Strawberry Country Cake from Ina Garten.  Oh yeah.  It was sooooo good!

Happy Father's Day to all Fathers!  Our lives wouldn't be complete without you!

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